50s Wiring vs Original Wiring on Greco Les Paul '89 | Tone Test & Blues Jam

I will switch to 50s wiring in my 1989-90 (Tokai) Greco Les Paul. Comparing the treble drop-off when rolling down the volume for both wiring styles. Playing through my Grand Tweed Deluxe with a Celestion Blue 12" speaker and the signal chain includes Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive Deluxe, Strymon El Capistan dTape v1, Neunaber Wet, and Fulltone Supa-Trem. I'll demonstrate tones over a Ditto X2 looper and a bluesy C minor backing track. The video also documents the wiring process, troubleshooting, and the final results.

#GrecoLesPaul #50sWiring #LesPaulMods #TokaiGuitar #GuitarTone #BluesJam #GuitarSetup #GuitarDemo #ToneTest #LesPaulTone #GuitarMods #BluesGuitar #GuitarPedals #electricguitar

00:00 Demonstrating treble drop off
00:55 Talking about the 50s wiring
01:59 Tones from the un-modded guitar and wiring process
06:52 Frustrated trouble shooting
09:30 The solution
11:30 Tones from the modded guitar with 50s wiring
17:19 Talking about the result
19:03 Blues jam over a C minor chord progression

My first video about the Greco Les Paul:

New information about my Greco Les Paul:

[Bushradical]

Man! You do great work Thor, great shots and amazing playing

[aapddd]

This really sounds like an original burst. Not many do. Hold on to this one !! It’s special.

[BallisticEvents-ei]

this guitar sounds better than so many gibsons. wow, i really wouldn't want a gibson if i had this beautiful instrument - sounds GREAT, looks so good... who cares about the brand.

[alanst.]

Beautifully expressive playing, Thor! Reminds me of Chris Buck a little. Seems your work with the 50s wiring paid back. The guitar inspires you more and I can hear a tonal difference as well. Thanks for the great content 👍

[petergedd]

Wow do not change that, thats a beautiful result like a Peter Green style tone, Love it. Thank You for sharing this as I will take a look at my wiring, if it turns out anything like you'rs I'll be over the moon. Cheers and subbed. NB, it's got what I call the 'Woody' sound, behind every note is a lovely aged wood tap tone cant describe it, but like a Vintage Stratovarius its there!! Not your imagination, it was black and white for me on the change over. When you pushed the strings, that overdrive people would pay mortgages for. 'Snowy White'

[darwinsaye]

I have done this mod on two of my guitars (single coil guitars). I think you will find as you play around more, that there is a long of interesting changes. Not only does this wiring method prevent too much treble loss, but it actually cuts some bass and low mids as you roll the volume down. This makes it excellent for going from an overdriven sound to completely clean just by rolling the volume down to about 6. Another odd thing that happens is the behaviour of the tone controls changes. Rolling down from 10 to about 6 doesn’t roll off much treble, but it reduces some gain (volume). Then from 6 down to 1 it rolls off treble like normal. With my tone set to 7, I can be playing through a high gain fuzz, and have it turn into a completely clean, clear signal by just moving the volume to 7 or 8 (essentially, I’m just saying that with the tone at 7, it takes even less volume roll-off to completely clean up the signal). The interactive nature of all the controls with this wiring reminds me of the interactivity of the volume and tone controls on a 5E3 Tweed Deluxe amp circuit.

[Tone.Corner]

Hey Thor, you made my day…every time! Beautiful Guitarsound and player…I never wired and soldering a 50‘s…but now…😉But in the moment I work on my Telecaster…you know Broadcaster…have a nice 3rd Sunday of Advent.

[joeltunnah]

If I ever get a Les Paul again, I'm going to do master volume + master tone. 4 knobs is two too many.
Beautiful playing!

[robertbruce]

That's a Beautiful sounding guitar, its tone so smooth and creamy, what a sweet top as well..

PEACE

[standingbadger]

I was skeptical about your mod as I liked the sound of the Greco already. But, I think it really works. It sounds to me like the new (old) wiring has retained the brightness - probably because you kept the original pots - but has made the mid frequencies more prominent? I'm with you on unmatched pots, as might be the case in the majority of guitars. It's my understanding that the pot's taper is affected by the relative resistance of the other pots in the circuit quite significantly. I read somewhere, that CTS quote a 9% tolerance in their pot values. So a 500k CTS pot could vary from 455 - 545k. Most ears may not be able to hear the difference, but a higher resistance equals a brighter tone, which is why, I think, your pots add that nice top-end sparkle to the humbuckers. You didn't mention the pot values, but they looked around 620k for both and seemed to be matched pretty evenly - within 10k of each other?

[TwangThang]

Pots are variable resistors. As resistors age, they generally gain resistance, not decrease resistance. 10% (550 in this case) is considered acceptable. These were 20-25% out of spec, it was a good move to replace them. I do 50s wiring in all my Les Pauls and 335s. What I like is the endless variations in interplay between the volume and tone pots. BTW, I am coveting thy neighbors Greco.

[TwangThang]

The date codes on the pots and neck pocket lead me to 1986.

[alainbrisebois]

OK.. modern keeps the tone the same as you role down the volume, but it cleans up and you keep the growl when you push the volum up ....great . Thank you.

[StratMagix]

Jeg har en Gibson Les Paul med 300K lineære volum pot’er og en Vintage V100 med 500K Log volume. 50s wiring på begge. 300K lineær bevarer treble bedre når volumet skrues ned. Usikker om forskjellige humbuckere har betydning. Har ikke testet 500K lineær….
Takk for en flott kanal :)
Mvh Oddmund

[spokes]

You had better luck than I did. I tried converting two of my guitars to 50s wiring and lost all volume unless the pots were turned all the way up and then the volume was very very low. I don’t know why this happened but I returned the wiring to the original way and had proper volume again. Just not the 50s style I wanted.

[ruipina]

are you using linear, logarithmic or a mix of pots?

[Les]

I can't stand modern gibson wiring. If you never use the tone then go 50s for sure and make your volume knob useful again.